I’ve always been a big fan of parodies. Be it movies, video games or any other storytelling medium a good parody knows how to poke fun at something while paying homage to the subject. Shaun of the Dead for instance was able to aptly poke fun at the zombie horror genre, while also paying massive amounts of respect to some tropes and fellow films. Ludosity’s indie title Ittle Dew does the very same with adventure/puzzle games, Zelda especially. Its puzzle centric dungeons, speed-run design will make you feel like you’re playing a Zelda while simultaneously offering its own spin and Ludosity has executed it wonderfully.

A dynamic duo…sort of.

Ittle Dew follows the adventures of the young girl, adventurer Ittle. With her is Tipsie, a fox with fairy wings and a penchant for drinking “health potions”. The pair finds themselves floating on a raft, when they crash onto a mysterious island with a gigantic castle and four distinct areas to explore. A castle, a volcano, a dreary swamp and a forest are amongst the many places you explore. The castle its self serves as a central hub for collecting money.

Now, this money can be used to buy items, but Ittle Dew has stream lined the item formula to only three available items: a fire sword, an ice wand and a portal wand. Each of their specific powers allows you to gain access to new areas of the large castle. Also, as you purchase each one you’ll be transported to each dungeon and area of the Island. A Master Cave is available for the truly experienced puzzle solver and adventurer filled with more rewards than you can count.

It may sound like you need all three items to complete the game, but according to some of the games achievements you may be able to complete Ittle Dew with only one or two of the items. This makes Ittle Dew perfect for speed running. But, all of this is only possible if you can solve some incredibly difficult puzzles. But this isn’t to say it’s purely for speed running. There are plenty of hidden grottos and caves dotting the island for you to explore and discover items and collectible trading cards for the player who wants to take his time.

A replayable, fun and challenging puzzle game

The ability to speed run and use different combinations of weapons brings a lot of replay value to Ittle Dew. You’ll go through areas you missed, or you’ll miss other sections entirely. Maybe you’ll find a new path, leading you more quickly through the game. No matter how you do it, you’ll have a slightly different experience. If you want to explore or blast through as quick as possible, you will be thoroughly enjoying yourself.

Ittle Dew’s beautiful top down cartoon style adds extra incentive to exploration. The bright and vivid pastel colors immerse you into this mysterious island. Even the dreariness of the castle with its stark grays and blacks manages to capture a small sense of true danger, even with the cartoon look. Dust and smoke have a slight Wind Waker vibe to it as well, but still manages to make these visuals belong to Ittle Dew.

Ittle Dews storyline works off of pure fun and parody, particularly with the Zelda franchise. The most notable aspect, and my favorite, is Tippsie. The drunken little fox, fairy sidekick acts as an antithesis to Navi from Ocarina of Time. While Navi would incessantly remind of the task at hand, as well as clues, Tippsie contacted with the hit of a button. His answers are often insightful, but in a typical drunken fashion this advice often comes out in a quite a cranky fashion.

Puzzle solving is immensely challenging at times, but they certainly aren’t impossible to solve. Most fit into the pushing blocks type, but you’ll find yourself still scratching your head. I had to push a block of ice to the other side of a fairly open room to put out a torch. It sounds tough, but using two stone blocks I corraled the block into the torch after struggling with the puzzle for ten minutes. The satsfaction of solving it was worth the challenge in the end.

My only issue with Ittle Dew is its combat at times. When you swing your weapon you often need the enemy to sit right in front of you in order to connect with a hit. It’s annoying, but eventually you’ll find a rhythm to combat and still become an effective fighter. I’d like to see more variety as well, yet streamlining down to only three items still offers plenty of different ways to take out an enemy or solve a puzzle.

Ittle Dew just fine

Ittle Dew is a very worthy, adventure, puzzle game and manages to give you a worthwhile challenge in solving them. The world is worth exploring for money, upgrades and those quirky collectible cards. Even the drawbacks in combat are miniscule compared to the rest of what Ittle Dew accomplishes in its puzzle solving and dungeon crawling. Much like Zelda It’s all about pure fun and adventure and Ittle Dew definitely delivers both in similar fashion, but still creates its own identity as a game. Seriously, if you enjoy adventures and puzzle solving get this game.